The Merry Wives of Windsor
is a comedy. Like Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors,
it relies heavily on mix-ups and slapstick
to win the guffaws of the audience. In this
respect, the play resembles an American
television staple, the situation comedy. It even
has the types of characters that appear in
American TV sitcoms: everyday middle-class
folks. There are no kings and queens, no dukes
and duchesses, no earls and barons.

Composition
and First Performance

According to conjecture, Shakespeare
completed The Merry Wives of Windsor
between 1597 and 1599. Two English Shakespeare
scholars—John
Dennis (1658-1734) and Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718)—maintained
that Shakespeare wrote The
Merry Wives at the request of Queen
Elizabeth I and that it debuted before
her. Rowe said that she so enjoyed the
character of Falstaff in Henry
IV Part I and Henry
IV Part II that she asked
Shakespeare to write another play
featuring FaIstaff. Dennis wrote in the
prologue of a 1702 play, The Comical
Gallant, that the queen was so eager to see
it acted that she commanded it to
be finished in fourteen days. . .
." (Quoted in Shakespeare: The
Complete Works, edited by
G.B. Harrison. New York: Harcourt,
1952, page 937).

Publication

A quarto
edition of the play was published in 1602 by
London printer Thomas Creede with misquoted
passages and omissions of entire scenes. An actor
performing in the play may have copied the play
haphazardly and submitted it to Creede. A second
quarto, also a defective copy, appeared in 1619. A
more faithful copy of Shakespeare's manuscript of
the play was published in 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first
authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Sources

Shakespeare's farcical plot of
tricking the trickster can be traced to the
Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184
B.C.)—in particular, to his 205 BC play Miles
Gloriosus (Latin pronunciation: ME lez
Glor e OH sus). This play, written in Latin, is
about a boastful but stupid Greek soldier,
Pyrgopolynices, who is tricked by slaves.
Shakespeare may also have drawn upon other
sources, which the British Library identifies at
Treasures
in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto.

SettingThe action takes place in Windsor
in Berkshire County, England, during the
Elizabethan Age. Windsor, a few miles west of
London, is the site of Windsor Castle, a royal
residence from the time of William the
Conqueror, who reigned as king from 1066 to
1087.

Characters

Protagonist: Sir John FalstaffAntagonists:
The Wives.Sir
John Falstaff: A fat knight with a robust
appetite for food, drink, women and their money,
and mischief. Falstaff is also a character in Henry
IV Part I and Henry IV Part II and
an offstage presence in Henry
V.Mistress
Ford, Mistress Page: Merry wives wooed by
Falstaff.Shallow:
A country justice whom Falstaff and his comrades
victimize by killing his deer, beating his men,
and breaking into his lodge. Shallow may have been
a caricature of Sir Thomas Lucy (1532-1600), a
Stratford-born justice of the peace, member of
Parliament, and tracker of English Catholics who
refused to recognize the Church of England.
According to an undocumented account, Lucy
prosecuted Shakespeare for stealing a deer from
his land. Slender:
Cousin of Shallow who accuses Falstaff's friend,
Pistol, of picking his pocket.Ford:
Husband of Mistress Ford.Page:
Husband of Mistress Page.William
Page: Son of Mr. Page.Anne
Page: Daughter of Mistress Page.Fenton:
A gentleman who loves Anne Page.Sir
Hugh Evans: A Welsh parson.Doctor
Caius: A French physician.Host of the Garter InnBardolph,
Pistol, Nym: Troublemaking friends of
Falstaff Robin:
Page of Falstaff.Simple:
Servant of Slender.Rugby:
Servant of Doctor Caius.Mistress
Quickly: Servant of Doctor Caius.Minor
Characters: Other servants.

Fie on sinful
fantasy! Fie on lust and luxury! Lust is but a bloody fire, Kindled with unchaste desire, Fed in heart, whose flames
aspire As thoughts do blow them, higher
and higher. Pinch him, fairies, mutually; Pinch him for his villainy; Pinch him, and burn him, and turn
him about, Till candles and starlight and
moonshine be out. (5.5.71)

Mistress Page then reveals the hoax
to Falstaff. Ford gloats, saying “Now, sir, who’s
a cuckold now?” (5.5.80). Falstaff says, “I do
begin to perceive that I am made an ass” (5.5.82).
And who gets Anne Page? Slender and Doctor Caius
think they do when they each steal away with one
of the disguised night creatures. But it is Fenton
who winds up with comely Anne. They have run off
and married. All ends happily, with no hard
feelings, as Mistress Page invites everyone to her
home to sit by the fireplace and have a good
laugh.

ClimaxThe climax of the play takes place in
the final act when Falstaff becomes the brunt of
an elaborate practical joke and admits, "I do
begin to perceive that I am made an ass"(5.5.82).

Tone

The tone of the play is lighthearted and
mischievous, especially when Falstaff becomes the
victim of practical jokes.

Conflict

The main conflict develops after Falstaff
writes love letters to Mistress Page and Mistress
Ford, hoping that this ploy will enable him to gain
access to their money. Unfortunately for him, the two
women compare the letters and vow revenge against
Falstaff. A secondary conflict develops after Mr. Ford
learns from Pistol and Nym that Falstaff is making a
play for his wife. Jealous, he turns against Falstaff
while also doubting his wife's faithfulness. These
conflicts bring about the comic events described in
the plot summary above.ThemesWomen can hold their own
against men—and
the dictates of custom.

The Merry Wives of Windsor takes place in an
age when males often regarded females as
playthings and when parents often chose the
suitors for their daughters. But it is the women
who win the day in this comedy. Two ordinary
housewives, Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford, get the
better of a gold-digging philanderer, Falstaff.
And Anne Page goes against the wishes of her
parents when she runs off with Fenton. The outcome
of the play must have pleased the women in
Shakespeare's audience. One of them was Queen
Elizabeth I, according to evidence indicating that
the play was first performed before her at Windsor
Castle. It is interesting to note, though, that
the women who make a fool of Falstaff, a knight,
are members of the middle class, not the nobility
or aristocracy. If the queen indeed delighted in
the victory of the merry wives, her enjoyment may
have been tempered by this fact—or so one may
speculate.All things are not as they seem.

Falstaff first deceives the wives. The wives then
deceive Falstaff and their husbands. Mr. Ford and
Mistress Quickly also deceive Falstaff. Falstaff
deceives himself.Insincerity breeds trouble.

Falstaff gets into trouble because he is
insincere, pretending to be lovestruck when he is
really money-struck.
Turnabout is fair play.

More Prose
Than VerseThe Merry Wives of Windsor is
unusual in that Shakespeare wrote most of it in
prose instead of verse or poetry. Pistol is the
only character who speaks most of his lines in
verse. The reason for his high-flown speech may be
Shakespeare's attempt to poke fun at a prominent
Elizabethan actor who worked for a company that
competed with Shakespeare's acting company. G.B.
Harrison explains: "Pistol was created to be a
walking parody of the great actor Edward Alleyn,
chief of the rival company, the Lord Admiral's
Men. Alleyn was the chief exponent of the older
style of heavy, robustious rant" (G.B. Harrison,
ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Works. New
York: Harcourt, 1952, Page 939).

Satire in the Play

In Shakespeare's time, aristocrats
considered it fashionable to place their health
care in the hands of a physician from another
country. To have a doctor from the European
continent was rather like having a BMW or a
Mercedes-Benz in the driveway in the modern
world. Shakespeare mocks these foreign
physicians through his characterization of
Doctor Caius. Caius is proud and overbearing,
fancies himself an outstanding fencer, and
believes Anne Page is in love with him. He
speaks in broken English that sometimes goes
very far awry, as in the following unintentional
pun he utters after Mr. Page invites Mr. Ford,
Sir Hugh Evans, and Caius to breakfast. After
Ford and Evans accept the invitation, Caius
says: "If dere [there] be one or two, I shall
make-a the turd" (3.3.100).

Figures of
Speech

Shakespeare wrote most of the The
Merry Wives in the prose of everyday
speech. Pistol is the only character who speaks
all his lines—except very short ones—in verse.
Consequently, the play contains fewer elegant
figures of speech than his other plays, written
mostly in verse. Nevertheless, the play does
feature memorable tropes, including the
following. For definitions of figures of speech,
see Literary Terms.

Metaphor

Sometimes the beam of her view
gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly.
(1.3.32)Comparison
of the gaze of Mistress Page to a golden
ray of light

Hang no more about me; I am no
gibbet. (2.2.9)Falstaff
compares
himself to a gallows

Alliteration, Metaphor

Why, then the
world’s mine oyster. Which I with sword
will open. (2.2.4-5)Metaphor:
Comparison
of the world to an oyster

He shall not knit
a knot in his fortunes
with the finger of my substance.
(2.2.29)Metaphors:
Comparison
of the accumulation of money to knitting;
comparison of money to a knot; comparison
of finger to wealth

Hypberbole

Well, if I be served such another
trick, I’ll have my brains ta’en out, and
buttered, and give them to a dog for a new
year’s gift. (3.5.5)

Simile

Have I lived to be carried in a
basket, and to be thrown in the Thames like a
barrow of butcher’s offal? (3.5.5)Falstaff
compares
himself to a barrow of offal (waste of a
butchered animal).

Annotations for the Opening Lines

The opening lines of the play
contain legal jargon, dialectical words, and
other verbal peculiarities which the modern
reader or playgoer may not understand. Following
is a reproduction of the first eighteen lines
from the 1914
Oxford Edition of Shakespeare, followed by
notes provided by the author of this web page.

Windsor.
Before PAGES' House.

Enter JUSTICE SHALLOW, SLENDER,
and SIR HUGH EVANS.

SHALLOW: Sir Hugh, persuade
me not; I will make a Star-chamber
matter1 of it; if he were twenty Sir
John Falstaffs he shall not abuse Robert
Shallow, esquire.2SLENDER: In the county of Gloster,3 justice of peace, and coram.4SHALLOW: Ay, cousin
Slender, and cust-alorum.5SLENDER: Ay, and rato-lorum6 too; and a gentleman born,
Master Parson; who writes himself armigero,7 in any bill, warrant, quittance,
or obligation,—armigero. SHALLOW: Ay, that I do; and
have done any time these three hundred
years. SLENDER: All his successors
gone before him hath done’t; and all his
ancestors that come after him may: they may
give the dozen white luces8 in their coat. SHALLOW: It is an old
coat. Eva. The dozen white louses9 do become an old coat well; it
agrees well, Passant;10 it is a familiar beast to man,
and signifies love. SHALLOW: The luce is the
fresh fish; the salt fish is an old
coat. SLENDER: I may quarter,11coz?12SHALLOW: You may, by
marrying. EVANS: It is marring
indeed, if he quarter it. SHALLOW: Not a whit. EVANS: Yes, py’r lady;13 if he has a quarter of your
coat, there is but three skirts for yourself,
in my simple conjectures: but that is all one.
If Sir John Falstaff have committed
disparagements unto you, I am of the Church,
and will be glad to do my benevolence to make
atonements and compremises14 between you. SHALLOW: The Council shall
hear it; it is a riot. EVANS: It is not meet the
Council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got15 in a riot. The Council, look
you, shall desire to hear the fear of Got, and
not to hear a riot; take
yourvizaments in
that.16

Notes

Star-Chamber
matter: Matter for the Privy Council, the
governing body of England and advisor to the king
or queen. The Privy Council acted as the supreme
court of England. G.B. Harrison says the council
met in what came to be known as the Star Chamber
"—so called because the ceiling was decorated with
stars—where it tried cases which did not come
within the ordinary procedure of the civil or
criminal courts" (Shakespeare: The Complete
Works. New York: Harcourt, 1952, page 25).esquire: Member of the
land-owning gentry.Gloster: Gloucester.coram: Slender mistakenly
uses the legal term coram for another
legal term, quorum. Quorum
occurs at the beginning of a clause in a
commission that appointed justices; the word
sometimes became part of a justice's title.cust-alorum:
Corruption of the Latin term custos
rotulorum, meaning keeper of the rolls. In
the England of Shakespeare's time, the custos
rotulorum kept the official records of a
county.rato-lorum: Slender's
corruption of rotulorum. (See 5.)armigero: Armiger. At one
time, an armiger was a squire who carried the
arms of a knight. Later, the term referred to
anyone with the right to display armorial
bearings.luces: Pikes, freshwater
fish. This might also be an allusion to Sir
Thomas Lucy, who was said to have accused
Shakespeare of poaching game on his land. His
armorial bearings pictured three luces.louses: Sir Hugh Evans tends
to mispronounce words.Passant: In heraldry,
an adjective used to describe an animal walking
while a forepaw is raised.quarter: In heraldry, a verb
meaning to combine the coat of arms of a wife's
family with the coat of arms of the husband's
family. This combination is placed on one of the
four quarters of a shield. coz: Cousin.py'r lady: By our lady.compremises: Compromises.Got: God.take
.
. . in that: Take that under advisement.

Study Questions and Essay
Topics

In an argumentative essay, take a
stand on whether Shakespeare intended The
Merry Wives of Windsor as a statement in
favor of women’s rights. In your essay, you
may wish to take into account the treatment of
women in other Shakespeare plays.

Thee Merry Wives of Windsor
is entirely different from other Shakespeare
plays in that it focuses on the everyday life
of middle-class people. (Other plays center on
kings, queens, emperors, nobles, wealthy
aristocrats, etc.) Does this difference
manifest itself in the dialogue of the play—or
in any other aspect of the play?

What was life like for
middle-class Englishmen in Shakespeare’s time?

In an essay, compare and contrast
the Falstaff of Henry IV Part I with the
Falstaff of The Merry Wives.

To what extent does The Merry
Wives poke fun at the love of money? In
researching your answer, you may wish to start
with these lines:

JUSTICE
SHALLOW: Did her grandsire leave her
seven hundred pound? SIR HUGH EVANS: Ay, and
her father is make her a petter [better] penny.JUSTICE
SHALLOW: I know the young gentlewoman; she
has good gifts. SIR HUGH EVANS: Seven hundred
pounds and possibilities is goot [good] gifts.
(1.1.23-26)